ArtZinePhotography

Marcel the Shell with Shoes on

2012-01-13T14:30:00.000+11:00

and there's a book too

with shoes on II is as much fun:

Paddington - design & quality

2011-12-12T13:23:00.000+11:00

November 2011

and you thought I had naturally curly hair

2011-11-18T20:27:00.001+11:00

on the way home

2011-10-30T18:47:00.000+11:00

King Street Newtown (Sydney) Australia 30 October 2011

bodydouble

2011-10-27T19:50:00.000+11:00

A body double is a general term for someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character in any recorded visual medium, in shots where the character's body is shown but the face is either not visible or shown indistinctly, or in shots where the image of the credited actor's face is joined, usually by digital image processing, to the image of the body double's body. Body doubles are most often used for shots involving nudity. More specific terms are often used in special cases; a stunt double is used for dangerous or sophisticated sequences. This is in contrast to a stand-in who replaces an actor for non-filming purposes such as scene arrangement and lighting adjustments.
Stunt double or body double can both be used for cases where special skills are needed—anything from playing the piano, to competitive skiing. (text nicked from Wikipedia bodydouble photo by me)

disembodied

2011-10-25T20:01:00.000+11:00

Office Kill

2011-10-03T22:24:00.001+11:00

mondayitis for Tuesday. It's been a holiday weekend just now - bucketed with rain but didn't matter - I ate custard and spent 4 hours reading about obscure serial killers when all that weather was going on
it was nice not to go to work for rent today and here's something for all artists working in that other world: Camilla Jackson as Li'l Cee "I'm a Temp"

Central

2011-09-15T19:23:00.000+10:00

September 2011

A visit to the flicks - previewing The Eye of The Storm

2011-09-11T18:49:00.001+10:00

I've just seen the new Australian film by Fred Schepisi, The Eye of the Storm, based on the Patrick While novel with Charlotte Rampling (as Elizabeth Hunter, center), Judy Davis (left), Geoffrey Rush and Alexandra Schepisi. The later who plays Mrs Hunter's day nurse, Flora, is outstanding in her role but is also the director's daughter and I feel the more seasoned actors were left to themselves during the making of this film while Flora was carefully shaped.
Judy Davis was splendid as was Charlotte Rampling. Geoffrey Rush played horrible Basil Hunter perfectly.
If you have not read the book, go and see it, there is some fine acting. If you have read the book, you may be left wanting. To not even have Elizabeth speak about the eye of the storm, was a sad omission but with most books made into film, there is not enough time to tell the whole story. A television series may have suited this better.
The Eye of the Storm by Patrick White is a large book and not one I am too fussed about but when I read it, I kept thinking it would be a better movie than book. While watching the movie, I had to force myself to ignore the book and concentrate on the wonderful actors. I'm glad I've spent time with both but will not revisit either of them.

Now, the Vivisector... that's another story! The Solid Mandala - I hope no one even tries to put it on screen, it is a masterpiece on page.

I looked up and felt a song coming on...

2011-09-09T19:34:00.000+10:00

not a movie set

2011-09-05T19:41:00.000+10:00

what's cooking then?

2011-08-21T20:25:00.002+10:00

Sunday night - dinnertime and avoiding thinking of Monday
Saturday: Hopped trains & buses over West to Fairfield Museum & Gallery to the Loop Group show and a bit of a look at their museum
Once again, the art of Linda Brescia (in the group show, Loop & at Sheffer Gallery as a part of Peter Fay's Showdown) has confirmed my fandom of her work

(photo - cast iron oven door in recreation of kitchen at Fairfield museum)

sick

2011-08-01T19:25:00.002+10:00

been really crook with a cold - unlike one I've had for years... haven't had one for years so this one, bedridden since mid-afternoon last Thursday (not kidding - I slept for 16 hours straight) is total crap
but
finally,
I can almost function for a couple of hours without the urge to lie down, lie down anywhere and sleep another few hours... hoping that pain across my back is merely non-movement caused & not some stupid pleurisy (?? nah)

new arts magazine site

2011-08-01T19:16:00.000+10:00

http://artravelife.com/

Susie Burge, arts writer & Michael McCorry, gallery director (amongst other things - they are a many hat wearing talented duo) have launched a new collaborative website.
Pop over & have a read, get on the list - even do that facethingybook if you are so inclined.
How handy! I just happen to be organising a group show at Sheffer Gallery for April next year... (more to come on that)

Sunday

2011-07-17T14:11:00.000+10:00

15 seconds of fame x2

2011-06-27T19:21:00.002+10:00

AH & I did that "Your Name in Lights" by John Baldessari in Sydney (for the festival earlier this year) & at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam - so we've had 30 seconds of fame and we did it global - so there, Mr Warhol! I forgot about when it was happening but AH waited with her laptop and took this photo with her phone camera as my name came up live-streamed all the way from Amsterdam:

thanks honey!

telling the truth

2011-06-25T18:57:00.000+10:00

Balcony, Cactus, Outdoor Lighting

2011-06-25T18:23:00.000+10:00

says it all really...

Enmore, Sydney NSW Australia

Road Trip Yaye!

2011-06-19T19:51:00.002+10:00

we went on a mini road trip just before the June long weekend; out to Bathurst, Millthorpe & Orange - mainly to visit the grave of a friend who died almost a year ago.

it was really really cold outside but the little car hired (by friend who drives, who I will call MG) was a little greenhouse

pretty from the car window (a bit bumpy for photography though)

is that pash rash?
Orange cemetery - religion, gum trees and flies & a great-great grandmother & g-g-grandfather buried over yonder.

above - Millthorpe cemetery - top of the hill with my back to our friend's grave is a bunch of flags for people too lazy to pray.

we stayed overnight in Bathurst where it dropped to 0 degrees Celsius.

I burnt a bunch of CDs for the trip - all sorts of music and lots of fun - Nancy's boots were walking and Cher told us all about being gypsies, tramps and theives, Dusty - let us know that You Dont Own Me and got very sophisticated Take Another Little Piece of My Heart (way cooler and more convincing than Janis - to me - there was a minor dispute of who sings the best version but made better with some Patti, Laurie (Anderson) and Nina Hagen). Top of the chart for me was Hush by Deep Purple, Melting Pot by Blue Mink and Love Grows where my Rosemary goes by Edison Lighthouse but the winner of the trip with the best melodrama and hilarious lyrics was:

A huge hit in Australia - Susan Raye singing LA International Airport - cause you know, in America, it doesn't matter how sad you are, there is always a pilot ready to tell you that you're flying friendly skies!

Leonora Carrington April 6 1917-25 May 2011

2011-05-27T13:21:00.002+10:00

It's people like Leonora Carrington that make a case for immortality valid.

A wonderful, inspiring and insightful artist.

Coincidentally, I am reading her novel, The Hearing Trumpet at the moment - it's a small book and I am trying to stretch out the pleasure of being in her story even though it would be easy to read it in one sitting.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/may/26/leonora-carrington-obituary

there's a good documentary including an interview with Leonora Carringotn, aged 84 at this vimeo link: http://vimeo.com/10760131

back in blogland

2011-05-22T18:38:00.004+10:00

was away

but now home - sigh - home and back in the machines (& computer)

Off

2011-04-28T17:14:00.000+10:00

- like a bucket of prawns in the sun

- back in blogland in about 2 weeks

footpaths after the weekend

2011-04-26T12:36:00.001+10:00

After such a long weekend, I wonder what remnants from the nights before I'll see on the Parramatta Road footpath on my way to work.
Sometimes it's simply a couple of beer bottles but last week it looks like margaritas were had:

to find out when the chewing gum landed would need carbon dating

One for Collectors - an auction item too tempting

2011-04-16T18:25:00.003+10:00

yes, that's right, at an opening bid of US$200 - with the Australian $ at parity, take a deep breath and best you sit down because you can be the proud owner of Marlene Dietrich's Valium bottle - empty, I assume - kind of odd, kind of grubby... but, if it had been Garbo's...
Having said that, Julien's Auctions of entertainment industry stuff is great fun; they have up for sale costumes from Planet of the Apes and previously a pedal car from one of those Omen movies along with rock stuff and movie costume design sketches...
Rather than a used jar and for an opening bid of just $100, I'd rather a Japanese Kimono once owned by Gloria Swanson - it's not even the ownership but the bargain price. If you are not aware of it, kimonos have become more popular and collectable over the last year or so and they are estimating a top price of $300, which is bargain city and, as most kimonos are way too long for me and only being about an inch taller than GS was... hmmm Here it is:

BUT! having a tad more around the waist than Ms G Swanson, I would be silly to buy it and it would only have me wishing to have been born with other genes (or a dislike of chocolate & pizza) but I do hope someone buys it and loves wearing it because that's what clothes are for.

I am also giving a bidding miss to hair clippings taken from John F Kennedy by his barber - that's just silly! Oh, unless you want to extract DNA, create a clone cell, grow some babies and make your fortune...

I looked up some previous sales and there are bargains to be had especially if you like dressing up:

http://www.julienslive.com/view-auctions/sales/

Oh no - black cats in the kitchen

2011-03-21T16:01:00.000+11:00

time to be totally silly & spooky... spooky in the kitchen

Sunday night - already!

2011-03-20T18:32:00.000+11:00

I feel like I'm walking through knee-high mud - it's Sunday evening and I'm off, out to dinner and then it's the day job on Monday... AGAIN - and nothing productive to show for 3 days except some notes and enjoyable head-space ideas that began to fruit but need that lovely space of hours & tranquility to form in the real, material way.
Then again, I've read up on some interesting artists this weekend and probably bought too many books. And I've done a heap of laundry that is sodden on the clothes line and hung through the house - no flash flooding this time but the rain has been bucketing down all weekend.

A collage I put together a few months ago comes to mind when frustration sets in, kick some bugs!

of course there's probably something deeper here but today, it's just kicking things - ahh, that's better.
wonder what we'll have for dinner...

wrote a bit of a poem last year

2011-03-16T22:07:00.001+11:00

I wrote "Choice - how to vote in Australia" after reading that poet Peter Porter died April 2010 and was inspired by Antoinette Kennedy, the retiring chief judge of the WA District Court speaking on the law report – ABC radio national 20 April 2010 (I listened when it was repeated Sat 24th on news radio).

Antoinette Kennedy: It's becoming an increasing problem. The community has become more frightened of disorder than of tyranny, and the history of the law, and the history of Australia, shows us that in reality there's no reason to be more frightened of disorder than tyranny, and when you frighten people so that they are more frightened of disorder than of tyranny, they're likely to give up the rights that have been fought for since the 13th century, and they're likely to let politicians do whatever they please.

Choice - how to vote in Australia

Disorder or Tyranny

Are there only two choices?

You can

drive your car

They can

pull you over

Lock you up

Don’t argue

You may be shot

It’s in the National Interest

Not tyranny

No, not tyranny

Who said that?

We are keeping you safe

But what is dis

And when does it straddle order

Demanding its fuck

In and out

Out then

Out of order

What is out or order?

The dis-miss-kiss (order) must be put in order

Under the law

Overseen by your tyranny

Only then is our safety absolute

Is it?

24 April 2010 ©Anne Bentley

Joe Morello 1928-2011

2011-03-15T19:59:00.001+11:00

I can't think of a more favourite drummer

a good flick & give it the flick

2011-03-04T16:36:00.002+11:00

AH bought her & I a treat the other week; a 5 ticket deal the The Sydney Mardi Gras Film Festival - it was fun to sit down & choose our sessions from a big line up. We chose only to go to films screening near home (there were a number of venues) and saw a couple of ok films - enjoyable enough to sit through & be in France & Spain for a while (Gigola & Eloise) , 2 of the worst films I think we may have ever seen (The Owls - dreadful & Room in Rome - dreadful - both were cringe worthy & it's hard to really say which film was the worst).
Film festivals are fun to attend - a bit of a lucky dip - with the final film we chose being, Howl, we hit the jackpot - an excellent film.
How do you make a feature film out of a poem?
Choose Alan Ginsberg's Howl, cast James Franco & end it with the song Ginsberg wrote after the death of his Father:

I could chat futher about the film, the poem, death of the father, seeking passion, empty, unfullfilling jobs that sap one's creative fire but I'm going to sign off & listen to Ginsberg once more instead.

Busking

2011-02-26T19:57:00.000+11:00

band: Hauschka

http://bandstandbusking.com/

I can see this starting up down the road in Sydney - as good at these people - well, there's the challenge but in Newtown on Thursday night I saw 3 men, all aged about 18 years busking with a slow Jimi Hendrix feel - lounge Hendrix? they were so good I stopped for sometime. One of the problems I have with people busking is I never know if I'll see them again and there is usually no other way of listening to their music.
Then again, it's like looking at an art show; there for the time I can see it.

Das Alles wär nie passiert - Annett Louisan

2011-02-10T17:45:00.004+11:00

All of this would have never happened (without Prosecco*)

she asked a friend about the whereabouts of her bra he replied that he'd seen her bra for sale on Ebay

You don't need to know German to get the gist of this song story (but it helps - thank you AH for taking me through all the lyrics) - and isn't Annett a treat!

(*Prosecco is a sweet champagne)

http://www.myspace.com/annettlouisan

When your honey is away for a week - there's substitutes to fill in the time

2011-01-31T19:13:00.001+11:00

Like:

and:

and maybe a bit of:

Then some:

or happily a bit of (just keeping in practice):

but then it's time to come home cause I'm done playing and it's time to play with you

(photos of chocolate dipped strawberries & books © 2010 Anne Bentley)

It's the weekend - time for fun

2011-01-21T19:38:00.001+11:00

and what a good time they had

image: (Harry Whittier Frees (1879–1953)

on a roll

2011-01-11T17:55:00.002+11:00

been procrastinating but productive in my distraction - cleaning walls, saving art from evil city grit/neighbour renovation dust/Sydney mildew etc etc. They look all shiny & sparkly now. There were also a bunch of pictures tacked up in the hallway & looking pretty crap after 5 or 6 years so I took them all down, along with some plaster - whoops - including a Xerox copy of some mini photos used in a bicycle-themed show back in 2004. Got a sore thumb from getting the Blu-tac off - handy that Blu-tac is the best thing to get Blu-tac off.

bubbly time

2010-12-30T20:23:00.001+11:00

Not me, I'm just too superficial realise the time of year - I'm leaving that to the real people:

Window shopping, Oxford Street, Darlinghurst, Sydney Australia

Still Life in the afternoon

2010-12-10T19:15:00.001+11:00

It's all happening in the kitchen

© 2010 Anne Bentley

Group Show - Brunswick Street Gallery opening Friday 10 December

2010-12-08T17:34:00.003+11:00

I've put a couple of small works into the small works show being staged by the Brunswick Street Gallery in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, The World.

My works are of a couple of flowers I photographed years ago & cut out to make a collage but only thought to pick up again and actually put together in the last couple of months.

Called Celebrity Eyes & Celebrity Smile, they feature flowers, a bit of writing & in the middle of each flower there is an anus.

Originally I had written a note with a small drawing of cats bums in the middle of each flower for that sour taste look that snobs who look down on people take on but didn't want to use cat anatomy in such a crude way because I like cats.

I don’t think I need to write an essay on the images on show or the notion of “celebrity”.

The works are in an edition of 10 printed on 300gsm matte cotton rag, nicely framed with their own magnifying glass attached (found some good bug spyglasses at the Australian Museum of course!).

middle of flower in detail as one would see using the magnifying glass attached to the lovely framed pieces at the gallery:

I've had a fine old giggle putting these together interspersed by slight nauseousness researching images - the anuses (ani?? hah hah) are all in the public domain and do not breach copyright.

Imagine being contacted by someone saying, "that's my arsehole, you arsehole!"

too fun

Along with over 500 other artists and 1787 works (wow!), the show opens this Friday 10th December 6-9pm and continues until 16th January 2011

BSG: 322 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy 3065 Hours 10am-10pm 7 Days a Week

Should be a lively exhibition - so much to see, wish I was there. So, get on over to Fitzroy you Melbourney people - I've had a look through the list and all the art is very affordable and there are some excellent bargains to be had.

The Grand Parade 2

2010-12-06T12:14:00.002+11:00

image © Anne Bentley

The Grand Parade

2010-12-06T11:37:00.002+11:00

image © Anne Bentley

Niamh Sharkey wins Irish Children's Book of the Year

2010-11-27T19:36:00.000+11:00

Congratulations to the very hard working, lovely, talented and always generous Niamh Sharkey on her win for:

Edwina Wrobel - Artist in Group Show

2010-10-24T20:58:00.003+11:00

Opening this coming Friday

From the Balmain Watch House Site:

Seven artists are ‘doing time’ this weekend. These ‘prisoners of artmaking’, 3 female and 4 male, however, are hoping for clemency by presenting a very colourful array of their artworks. The inmates are all from Sydney but each with a different cultural background. Brought together by a passion for art and ‘crime’ this is their first collective initiative.

Opening Fri, 29, 6-8.30pm - runs: Sat 30, Sun 31 October 2010 10am - 5pm 179 Darling Street Balmain NSW

I first came by Edwina Wrobel's (1) work in September 2004 via Irene Schroder who ran Mura Clay Gallery in King Street Newtown for almost 20 years.
The invite card for an exhibition featuring Edwina's work that arrived in the post had a picture of Joy's Birth: for Joy Hester (2), which I liked a lot & kept on display so as not to miss the show. During the afternoon before the exhibition opening, I chanced by the gallery for what was becoming a regular chat with Irene - we would save the world, change politics or talk about artists & this time was no different except there was an opening that night so we talked about the art - I couldn't talk about much else and Irene agreed the work was wonderful and, with a wink said that they take layby. I kept coming back to the invitation card work and it was settled. Laybying "Joy's Birth" cost me more than the rent and more than my weekly wage but I was totally seduced and it hasn't stopped since.

Five years and one month later, I was sitting in Edwina's home listening to her story about really wanting to own a piece of art by a particular artist held in the stockroom of an upmarket gallery and talking them into letting her layby it.

I see Edwina's work as being personal thought that turns a corner only to hit a wall being the intrusion of a sometimes nasty world. Using her own symbols along with an illustrative attraction to Día de los Muertos after spending time in Mexico as well as the Heide Circle of Australian artists - the later most obvious in Joy's Birth: for Joy Hester. The daughter of avid Australian art collectors, Edwina grew up around Woolloomooloo and was one of The Gunnery group; a squat & artists community that began around 1985 until 1991when they were all booted out so the State Government could refurbish it to become an arts administration building & gallery.

Objects and art Edwina collects are as interesting as the art she creates including the remains of the famous Kings Cross sign (3) questioning the (suspected) murder of Juanita Nielsen rescued from questionable storage in an outhouse.
It was a treat to visit her & see some of her other works I hadn't seen (image #4).

Edwina often has me in stitches with her anecdotes about people in the workplace, family, past & present adventures and this mixing bowl of feeling: humour, frustration and irony can be seen in her work and for me, Being in the Office (5) says it all.
In her previous group show at the Balmain Watch House her works included disturbing paintings depicting scenes from Thomas Keneally's The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith along with contrasting &, I think, stronger paintings to do with travelling to Broken Hill and relationships (image #6) - needless to say, all the paintings sold out that weekend.

Art makes me happy and feeds my mind - the original Wrobel's in our house delight both me and my partner (AH) daily.

I haven't seen any of Edwina's new work for this coming weekend's group show but I've held off on completely paying AH back my half of electricity bill, just in case I need a layby deposit...

Images as numbered:

1. Ed & Ted (4th October 2009 - photograph © Anne Bentley)
2. Joy's Birth: for Joy Hester 2004 Edwina Wrobel
(oil on tin © the artist - collection of Anne Bentley)
3. Whatever Happened to... Juanita Nielsen (circa late 1970s artist unknown - paint on chipboard - custodial collection of Edwina Wrobel - photograph Anne Bentley)
4. titleTBA - Edwina Wrobel
(oilpaint on canvas © the artist- collection of the artist)
5. Being in the Office 2008 - Edwina Wrobel (Gouache © the artist - collection of Anne Bentley)
6. I Don't Want a Boy Who Won't Hoe Corn 2008 - Edwina Wrobel

(Gouache © the artist - collection of Anne Bentley)

7. Scarred - Edwina Wrobel

All photography except image#7 by Anne Bentley.

Rebecca Clarke: Belongings

2010-10-13T19:08:00.007+11:00

In June, AH and I were asked to attend a reading of playwright and actor Rebecca Clarke’s new work Belongings. I felt both honoured and flattered to participate and so, on the wintery Wednesday evening of June 23rd, we and umbrellas battled tiny footpaths full of trees and home-time workers to get to the rehearsal rooms in Surry Hills.
I asked the lovely Rebecca if I could write some notes about her work for my blog & got the ‘go for it’ reply. It was a bit tricky to write about, I didn’t want to give away any secrets but I don’t think there’s any need for a “spoilers warning” so read on:
==

In Belongings Rebecca layers themes of family, loss, belonging, sexual tension and desire against a backdrop of rural Queensland.The first protagonist we meet is a young woman preparing for the funeral of her grandfather who is also the man who raised her. Seemingly world weary and cynical but also naive and uncertain, she’s been shaped by her upbringing, by the land, loneliness and the need to want to belong somewhere – preferably somewhere else.

Enter young jaded city male, wound tight & also lonely, he wants to think he knows the girl; feeling a connection and the need to protect mostly due to his connection with dead granddad and the big company that wants the land. To me, he seeks out where he belongs not to place but to people. He is not a grunting cocky, nor is he a slick big business exploiter. He is out of place in his job and out of place way out nowhere. He’s a bit of an ordinary, modern man with heart and some well scripted vices.

We then meet middle-aged (& wonderfully played by a guest actor), woman who runs the bar and… has secrets – well, she may have some answers.

There are 3 featured humans but another protagonist is an abandoned house on the property belonging to the young woman’s family. It’s ghostly but the interior has life and material belongings from an era only just past. Humans did live here but they are so obviously absent that the possessions scattered through it belong to the house itself rather than humans.
Without any theatrical extras, we sat through the whole reading totally involved the story and walked out of the building with an enthusiasm to see the full production. Belongings has grit, drama and some very nice humour. Rebecca’s writing is instinctive and intelligent. She won awards and critical acclaim for her 2005 play Unspoken, which was also adapted and broadcast on ABC Radio National. It is my good fortune to have met Rebecca Clarke and call her a friend and it is Australia’s luck to have her in its creative realm. Onya Bec!
==

Shortly after that evening her work was shortlisted for the Queensland Premier’s Drama Award along with Marcel Dorney & Philip Dean.

Thanks to this, all three artists have the opportunity to focus completely on fine-tuning their work with expert advice and one of the three will have their work produced by the Queensland Theatre Company as part of the 2011 season.

- Gosh, how exciting!

The Queensland site tells us this about Rebecca’s play:

Belongings is a poetic three-hander play set on a remote Australian rural property, and also at the Hotel at the nearest small township. It's inspired by the land around Many Peaks and Kalpower, outside of Gladstone, combined with an old family property near Banana in the Callide Valley. The story explores isolation, heritage, community, and the change that results from the death of a powerful patriarch and an 'old way'; the rising up of ghosts and secrets. How does a person find themselves again when all that has been seemingly 'known' and solid has shifted irrevocably? To what do we 'belong' to when so much has been stripped away?
=

Cool synopsis & I hope she does well. I haven’t named any of the protagonists as now Belongings is a work in progress, things can change and I really, really hope it ends up on stage for you, dear reader to come along with us one evening.

the photo that broke my lomo camera

2010-09-05T19:58:00.001+10:00

creepy big entrance to Luna Park Sydney from a couple of years ago - film ripped up in my little camera & this is the shot that did it as you can see through the top 3rd of the image. The camera has been untrustworthy ever since; often only exposing half a roll. It's expensive and frustrating so I've put it in the bulk lot to sell.

And I've been a slacker blogger - doing a new day job that ate into art feeding time but I've settled a bit now and will be blog happy once more.

to come: art notes on Rebecca Clarke's new play shortlisted for the Qld Premier's Award / Edwina Wrobel & her art / Love on the Left Bank by Ed Van Der Elsken: thoughts on a classic.

image © Anne Bentley

Hey - you and me - drive away for just 3mil

2010-08-16T18:53:00.000+10:00

Bargain! sold this weekend - 1949 Delahaye Type 175 S Roadster by Saoutchik for US $3,300,000 that once belonged to Diana Dors (when she was 17yrs old) - baby!

Way more fun than Lady Penelope's ride:

but! was Lady Penelope more fun than Diana Dors?

I may never know

Dragonfly

2010-08-07T13:33:00.002+10:00

from 2001 negative - scanned 2010

post script: to answer a couple of questions - the dragonfly has landed on mangrove roots - the photo was taken in Sydney NSW Australia

oh those dolly girls

2010-08-07T13:08:00.002+10:00

looking down at you

they're probably on drugs

© 2005-2010 Anne Bentley

No surprises are the best birthday presents

2010-07-29T19:59:00.002+10:00

Sometimes you have to give yourself permission to buy art - for the pleasure it gives you - first by seeing, then choosing, then buying, and when you bring it home, the pleasure begins again...
if your loved one doesn't know what to get you for your birthday - the usual at our place - suggest something, buy it & get reimbursed. For one of my gifts, I chose Hosang Park's image of a park in Seoul from the friendly people at 20x200 - a one stop online gallery where art is cleverly priced and the only way we were going to afford one of his photographs. The one pictured below we purchased in early June but because it was a birthday present, I had to wait until Tuesday this week to make it mine.

Howon (© Hosang Park)

There's more to see with the real thing (heh heh) than the online view. The print quality is stunning - heavy cotton paper with sharp & crisp definition.

Hosang Park is a Korean artist who has made a series of bird's-eye view park shots -his website has the set (click on "A Square") - totally cool.

THEN!, in the mail a money note from my parents... gosh...and how excellent that 20x200 also has some Beth Dow work available - not quite sold out yet but I got a move on just in case I miss out as I did for a previous edition of hers.

Check out her website too - she has a large series of formal English & Italian gardens - including Sissinghurst where the people in the picture could be mistaken for Vita & Harold themselves, taking a morning stroll.

Passage - Levens Hall (© Beth Dow)

This image originates from a platinum-palladium print - hence the excellent tones but it's the way Beth has framed her shot that is also outstanding for me.

I'm not going to write a film vs digital rave - each has it's place and Beth Dow's work, along with Gordon Undy, Lauren E Simonutti & Filip Przewozny, to name a few diverse artists on my want list, proves that traditional photographic film & hand printing is alive and well (and being drooled over).

As an initiative, the Jen Bekman project; 20x200 is inspired - it makes art accessible and really good fun to be a part of & art lasts a lot longer than chocolate & flowers.

Images here are reproduced with permission - copyright remains with each artist.

Sundays

2010-07-26T19:28:00.002+10:00

semi-industrial Alexandria, Sydney Australia

old mobile phone photo

2010-07-15T11:40:00.000+10:00

the phone is a 2006 model - old by today standards

Glebe (Sydney) NSW Nov 2009

Cori Harkness 1959-2010

2010-07-09T15:44:00.004+10:00

Cori Harkness 12 June 1959 - July 2010

Cori just after the International Women's Day March Adelaide March 1992

I first met Cori Harkness 20 years ago in Adelaide.
The "women's scene" such as it was (& likely still is) was a small set up: annoying, incestuous, fun, emancipating and ridiculously dramatic - and all at the same time.
Cori, newly arrived from Sydney, appeared reserved and totally cool - everyone wanted to be acquainted with her - like some of the coolness would rub off.  Scene status by association. The library class soon stepped in with their own claim but Cori, ever thoughtful if you looked closely and noticed (but don't tell her that!) was more inclusive and observant. She was kind, clever, totally eccentric, funny with a sharp and cynically dry wit, reserved and shy. Did I say she was pretty cool? yeah, she was pretty cool.
When I first met my parther, AH early in 1993, she was there with her own humour - oh, don't bother, she said as I headed off to the dance floor with the latest cool arrival from interstate on the scene, masturbation is easier. Sometimes I never knew if she was teasing & being sarcastic or she really meant what she said.  Cori didn't let even those closest to her too close. But she has left a trail of seemingly small actions that have made significant differences in peoples lives.
When AH moved to Sydney without me in 1994 to find us a house to live in, she ran into Cori at a pub & it was like a friendly welcome light. Years later at small party Cori was hosting, AH was stressing over a dreadful, soul-destroying job & Cori simply said, "It's Saturday night. On Monday just go in and resign. If you don't I may have to kill you."
AH resigned and never looked back. AH later also knew Cori when they both worked at the RPA hospital where Cori was a member of the MATT team of the mental health unit - the Mobile Assertive Treatment Team that case manage people seriously affected by mental illness - working as a psych nurse for many years, I think, contributed to her clever cynicism.
Early in 2001, I was showing Cori some photos I'd taken & she said, "I like how you see things" and suggested I do a course to learn the tools so I could just take the shot without having to worry about getting it right. So I did a weekend black & white photography workshop (at the prestigious Point Light Gallery) along with a pile of self-education and, as I write, my 5th solo show is in a gallery. Her kindness gave me confidence to do something.
I saw a lot of her during her last relationship, which introduced me to one of my now closest friends (MG) -  one of her great loves Cori never truly let go of her feelings for MG and even though they split around 6 years ago, they remained friends.
Then one day, Cori got cancer. The side effects of treatments changed the woman I would see now and then were significant. Many kilos heavier and a shade of sallow grey, I wondered if she'd ever recover some of whom she once was. When she sold her lovely 1/2 coach house in Camperdown around 3 years ago & moved to Milthorpe in rural NSW, she sent me photos of her house & animals and then communication stopped. A friend told me there was a secondary cancer sometime last year and I knew then, even if Cori wasn't totally conscious of it, that she'd taken herself off to the country to begin again or to die. Her body chose death.
The last months of her life was her dying of cancer - horribly sick and in pain with just that little more morphine to help her along this week - so to speak.
Sad and final, I know that she would have just fobbed me off with an embarrassed wave if I said to her face the difference she made in our lives and I am sorry for me that I didn't get to say so anyway.
Funeral was today in Milthorpe as I write this in Sydney.
so, cheers Cori, check you later

Last minute addition to the exhibition - poor Hamlet

2010-06-21T19:11:00.001+10:00

"Does not thou see?", cried Hamlet - but noone was listening

(Lambda print 47x36cm)
...poor old Hamlet - seemingly unhinged again...this is the latest picture with a little more to it than first meets the eye - yes there could even be a deep double meaning in it (I finished it at around midnight last night) for SANE - opening this Friday night details in the post below.

Counting down

2010-06-10T01:05:00.005+10:00

"Animal Farm meets modern politics in quirky collage-style prints." Time Out Sydney

"crisp and engaging" editor Art Monthly Australia

"contemporary art with nerve and humour" Birthe Havmøller - editor Feminist Moments

The gallery chap put this open invitation together - if you are around, drop by - it's a nice small space just up the hill from Central Station. I did a reconnaissance today and found a good walk that doesn't require a pick axe to get up the hill: Elizabeth, right into Foveaux, third on your left into Belmore & right into Albion. The show is at #105 on the corner of Albion & Waterloo - easy peasy and there will be chocolate.

I hope to see you there - in the meanwhile, I'll be the frazzled looking one wondering how I can fit everything in but I am very happy with the prints - they look a treat - you can check out just about all collages from the SANE series on my website.

A spot of rain

2010-06-04T18:39:00.001+10:00

filmed by a local - this is Mallet Street Camperdown - the next street down from where I live
we had a spot of rain today with some warning of flash flooding

a friend of mine used to live in that grey block of flats and I'm glad he moved but what about the brick building - it has a basement carpark - I wonder how full it got
I was in the main streets of Newtown at the time of this flooding - it wasn't the rain coming down that got me wet but the 6 foot walls of water splashing the footpaths from buses & cars

Esteemed Company: Anne in a group show - Transferring The Image (in Newtown)

2010-06-03T18:05:00.000+10:00

Two of my works are to be included in Transferring The Image at Kerrie Lowe Gallery 49-51 King Street Newtown (Sydney) 2042 opening Friday 6-8PM 18th June & extending until 6th July.

Laurie Anderson at the Opera House last night

2010-06-03T09:48:00.004+10:00

we sat in the second row
Laurie Anderson live

sigh

Perfect day for a ferry ride with a bit of art on the side

2010-05-29T19:17:00.009+10:00

Friday afternoon was perfect weather to catch a ferry to Cockatoo Island and have a look at art on show for the Sydney Biennale.

I'm glad we chose to go this early in the season (the Biennale runs until August 1st) as I reckon word will get out about the scenic free ride to an island in the harbour and it will get very busy.

Above - from the ferry on the way to Cockatoo Island Sydney Harbour - a very pretty day.

When we arrived and walked up the hill to the west side, I took a couple more photos (one below) before zipping it all away to take in some of the installations scattered throughout buildings all over the island.

In the past I had taken a dislike to video art - to me it was often contrived and boring but now I feel it has come of age and artists using this medium are less self-conscious and, of course there are more people making electronic works so there is more choice.
AH & I only got through a third to half of the Cockatoo Island artists. Of note was Yayoi Kusama's Song of Manhattan Suicide Addict (2010) - she is always a reliably good artist. NZ photographic artist Yvonne Todd's work was a smidge creepy - for all the right reasons and displayed in a small partly dilapidated building, which added to the unsettling of the viewer.
Amal Kenawy's video installation, My lord is eating his tail (2010) - man in wheelchair, other man dancing, birdcage, dancer swaps with wheelchair and wheelchair man dances - man in wheelchair writhes - sounds obvious but is executed extremly well and I stayed the whole loop through. As a note, I was glad to have watched her work before reading the write up - I got to think my own version of the story before being told what it means.
Althea Thauberger's video, La mort e la miseria, is a allegorical tale in the ancient Ladin people's (a minority living in the Dolomites) Rhaeto-Romance language. Death gets stuck in the apple tree belonging to poverty and people stop dying (even when poverty lets death out of the tree, there is still poverty) - it's a delight and 'death' had a humour about her that reminded me straight away of a video I saw in March by Jo Cuzzi, Scary D & Emma Pressman that was completely different but left me with the same satisfied feeling.
Oh and we really liked Tarryn Gill & Pilar Mata Dupont's big Lament of the Argentine Military - even though I felt the performer was more Frida Kahlo than patron saint - fabulous stuff despite the parents allowing their offspring to run around and shout in the dark, disrupting its impact.

Cockatoo Island itself is a treat - a heritage uban park with a maze of buildings, stairs up the side of a steep rock cliff still dripping with the recent deluge and a fun tunnel that takes you back where you started from.

Images 2010 ©Anne Bentley

Day out at the MCA - Sydney Biennale

2010-05-26T16:47:00.003+10:00

AH has a little time off this week so we took out our brollies & visited the MCA at Circular Quay to check out some of the art on show for the Sydney Biennale.
It can be a challenge to show diverse artists next to each other but so far the 17th Biennale is keeping it interesting and well organised.

After walking 3 floors of the MCA highlights for me were the memorial poles by 41 Yolngu artists and 2 video works: John Bock's Fischgrätenmelkstand kippt ins Höhlengleichnis Refugium, 2008 - a true modern surrealist - and Mark Wallinger's 1997 film, Hymn - I am looking forward to more work by this artist when we take the ferry to Cockatoo Island in a couple of days.

Roxy Paine's Neuron (2010), that I have partly pictured below, out the front is best viewed from a little window on the first floor (rats - my pocket camera was cloaked) - just after the room containing Jake & Dinos Chapman's "Shitrospective" - a display of humour & cleverness but which gets lost if viewers are unaware of the brothers often horrid but pristine & grotesquely realistic works.

I think the next highlight on Friday will be the free ferry ride (to Cockatoo Island)- that's a nice touch - clever too - yaye - free ferry! such fun.

Of course there's a lot going on that isn't part of the Biennale but due to good promotion of this event I think people will also check out what's going on locally.
We've had a look at some of the Head On photography including the ACP and Anne Zahalka's work showing in a selection of Newtown pubs.
Friday evening will have me first in line to check out the latest from Bev Hogg at the Kerrie Lowe Gallery, Newtown - a hooded bunny with barbed wire on the invite has me intrigued.

Exhibition is go

2010-05-23T14:07:00.002+10:00

Greetings from a cold, wet Sunday afternoon. In our old, leaking house it's just as cold inside as it is outside but that's not breaking news about the quality of rental properties in the inner west of Sydney.

News is the gallery showing my latest stuff has revamped their website, which also includes a press release for my show http://www.albionstreetgallery.com/

(invite card - using detail from GarageWorks* © 2010 Anne Bentley)
SANE - an exhibition opening Friday 25 June 2010 - extends until 23 July
Albion Street Gallery 105 Albion Street Surry Hills NSW Tues-Sat 11AM - 5PM or by appointment.

*just a note - the image is a paper collage, cut & glued then scanned. The pictures span 100yrs - from a 1905 encyclopaedia style book, a 1950s Women's Weekly supplement, the always reliable National Geographic (for their 1960s Kodachrome look) to a nature magazine from about 2006.

Nicolas Collerson - Artist

2010-05-10T18:35:00.007+10:00

I’ve wanted to write something this artist & his works that I cohabit with, for a over a year now but it’s not as easy an exercise as I thought. I am not an arts essay scholar but on the other hand, I am an arts fan so on that basis I will tell a condensed, personal story with pictures on how I came to enjoy living with some of the wonderful work of Nicolas Collerson.

At the end of November 2008 on a weekend, my partner was away interstate so I was frolicking about and decided to visit a friend in her shop on Enmore Road, Newtown (Sydney Australia). While waiting for the friend to finish serving a customer, I went next door to have a look at a small group art show closing that night in a walk through room an enterprising fringe dweller has made into a gallery.

The first thing I saw, and I don’t even recall the other artists, was a small set of iconoclastic works by Nicolas Collerson. I knew one or more of them would have to come home with me.

On exhibition of Collerson’s works were 2 paintings, 2 wall sculptures and a standing piece on a plinth that looked to me, like a Jesuit but had an octopus for a head & was holding a black bunny:

Octopope by Nicolas Collerson (2008 - approx 32cm tall. ceramic statue, rubber octopus toy & random little plastic rabbit, acrylic & spraypaint enamel. photography by Anne Bentley)

His The Glorious Tentacled Host Rinse Out was the one that had appealed to me immediately – finally someone who isn’t only having a go at humans and their Christianity but also Buddhism. It seems so sacred to white Westerners, even non-believers - ya can’t dump on the Buddha. Well, I do! Stupid prayer flags in the wind, probably made by exploited workers using toxic dyes… but they were a bargain… Lazy praying, I reckon – hang a set of coloured flags and you’ll be right for the next life. And, by the way, do you know the Dali Lama, the latest rock star of religion, does not believe in sex for anything other than procreation and does not agree with homosexuality. At a press conference in June 1997, he commented: "From a Buddhist point of view [lesbian and gay sex]...is generally considered sexual misconduct" 1 ).
Gee, he’s a lot of fun...Nicolas’s work belies my stroppiness – it is delightful and has a clever fun play about it.

The Glorious Tentacled Host Rinse Out by Nicolas Collerson 2008 (photograph by Anne Bentley)

Child rearing with an organised religious aspect can have profound effects on a creative and original thinking mind – especially when the child’s thoughts are contrary to elder’s beliefs. Personally, I am often baffled by people having blind belief in a book written generations after its suggested time and interpreted by ego and (mostly) male power circles.

I don’t have to present any further essay on religion & war until my soapbox crumples under me as I can see a fine illustrative rendition of human-made Christianity on the wall:

Saint Sophia The Blessed Selecta (& detail) by Nicolas Collerson 2008 (Mary statue, cardboard, plastic glow in the dark star, felt tip markers, plastic fly & various plastic army soldiers on MDF board)

Being the art junkie I am and knowing that weekend the only cash on hand was our house rent, I pondered calling the artist to make an offer for some of his work for, oh about 10 minutes, raced home, got the cash & organized to meet Nicolas back at the gallery a couple of hours later that evening.

When I arrived at the designated time, the only person there was a man who didn’t look much like the artist I’d spoken over the phone. It turned out he was another buyer and he’s spoken with the woman who ran the place & said he wanted to buy the works…

Really? I asked, when did you speak with her?

Yesterday.

Oh – and this is where a true art junkie shows her worth, But, I said, I’ve already spoken with the artist about some of his works.

Which ones?, he asked

All of them.

This man upon whom I’d already made unfavourable judgment went on to say how he could easily make exactly the same works and probably better. I expected him to finish his spiel with a flourishing flick of hair or his scarf.
The tosser left.

=======

When Nicolas delivered his works - yes, he came by & hand delivered his work to our place on a really hot day, I asked him if he created his work instinctively rather than with a totally mapped out idea as this is how I am seeing his work. He agreed then and recently re-confirmed this saying he is “a bit hesitant in declaring what a work is supposed to be about, I’d rather (the works) be approached like the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)2 in psychology.”

In other words, the viewer tells his or her own story as they see it from before the event of what the image depicts, through to the outcome using only what they see in front of them with no written explanation.

The Warhol as Chthonic Incubus by Nicolas Collerson 2007 (acrylic, felt tip pen, spraypaint on MDF board. photography by Anne Bentley - hanging in our lounge)

===
Nicolas Collerson is not only a visual artist, he is also well known and respected in Breakcore music circles, having created his own hybrid of Breakcore and Mashup3

Going by the name Maladroit, he is anything but – he’s been creating his own sounds for close to 10 years, starting out in 2001 producing for the now defunct System:Corrupt Collective and has toured numerous times as Maladroit including an extensive tour of Europe including Russia, the Ukraine, Scotland, the UK, Spain and Czech Republic in 2009.

Currently living in Melbourne, Nicolas is considering showing some of his current work in Sydney sometime in the future. I’m hoping for the near future.

1 http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_budd.htm
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thematic_Apperception_Test
3 Experimental Music: Audio Explorations in Australia – Gail Priest - UNSW Press December 2008

===
all images and text are copyright

archeological find - Hey! what's for dinner?

2010-05-01T20:12:00.002+10:00

dinner?
definitely not potatoes

I've been cleaning up

oh, I KNOW! I'm not studying so there is no essay due but I was still cleaning... with no other deadline (well, maybe a bloody press release hanging over my head)- mostly I was saving all my books from the invasion of neighbouring renovator's dust & it took ages because I had to look at all my lovely books too..

This little treat was all alone, legs in the air... and I'm not sure how it got where it was. There were some odd little bugs appearing now and then and the flesh turned into a fine sand, so now it's hollow.

I'm contemplating putting it in a setting with some other objects for a lovely home still life photo... well, no life now, hey?

here are some (only some, there's another bookcase in the next room) of the dusted & tided books that were near found potato - lovely

I really thought it was Monday

2010-04-27T19:47:00.001+10:00

that's what long weekends and going to the cinema on Monday afternoon will do to a person's head.
I thought I might try a different lotto ticket, one that is drawn on Tuesdays. "Oh," I thought today as I walked up the main road, "I can get that tomorrow"
no you can't. tomorrow is Wednesday.
I was going to write and post a long blog about how we are attending the German Film Festival (hence the going to the cinema in the daytime) but I visited a good friend for a cuppa & it went into cup 3, as it would when the conversation is so interesting - good thing I remembered it was Tuesday and looked in my diary.
So, instead of images, links and a youtube clip, here's another Still Life at Midnight shot from a little series I'm doing:

la la ladels at midnight

Sunday walk

2010-04-21T02:12:00.000+10:00

Autumn is a good time to take a walk down the road a bit to Black Wattle Bay. I like a working harbour rather than a plastic marina for expensive floaties (those flash yachts were there, just to the right of this photo but there's no need to spoil the view)

the new plastic surgery

2010-04-12T15:57:00.003+10:00

I had a dream last night that you could change your appearence by using the clone tool in Photoshop - or any other computer program that does the same thing.
In my dream I had images of a profile & drew in a big nose - like Nicole Kidman's over-done prosthetic nose playing Virginia Woolf in The Hours (I am yet to get the nerve to watch this film due to all the carryon about her being 'brave' & a 'fabulous actor' to take on a role that made her 'look plain' - kind of detracts from the exceptional mind of V Woolf, don't you think - so for the moment I would only be seeing a prosthetic nose).
I heard voices - there were more people around in my dream as this new body image morph tool got big in discussion circles, as it would.
Then a voice said, "but you know, if you move on from the area you've been altering, the step back button (undo) doesn't work."
Oh!
so maybe Nicole Kidman could end up with a big nose! And, I thought in my dream, maybe there's a heap of people walking around with blemish-free but with strange skin & brush-stroked blurred expressions on their faces...

or worse:

(image I've doctored is part of Ivan Albright's painting commissioned for the 1945 movie, The Picture of Dorian Gray starring Hurt Hatfield, Angela Lansbury and George Sanders - the later, GS, I thought spoilt the film by over-acting & speaking his lines way to fast and messing up all that lovely banter Oscar Willde wrote so well).

Get out of the house... get out

2010-04-08T13:23:00.003+10:00

I'm saying it aloud this last hour in a poor impersonation of the voice from The Amityville Horror (the original film that is, I just noticed there's a 2005 remake - think my brain was elsewhere that year) but I still seem to be stuck in this chair...

Above: OUT - Leichhardt (Sydney) March 2010 © Anne Bentley

I'd been looking at this sign for years telling myself I really should grab a shot of it before they clean it or its illumination goes and I finally remembered to a couple of weeks ago.

If you look at it long enough, the writing appears to be back to front - except it's not

Long Weekend in your headspace

2010-04-04T18:51:00.011+10:00

couch on an awning above a shop, King Street, Newtown

AH & I haven't been total couch potatoes this weekend... We are yet to view the end of Sunday Bloody Sunday that I hired for Thursday night (someone who worked hard all week fell asleep with 15 minutes to go & it wasn't me - I fall into night owl mode often - I stayed up after 2am last night watching an only OK film because it had Isabella Rosselini in it...)
It's been weekend of local arts - AH & I have checked out both visual art group shows for Sheilafest - the first we saw was in Newtown - a mixed lot with a really cool video work by Hanna Buck
Yesterday we met* (*AH needs to ride her bicycle or she goes feral - I meandered over on foot) at Kudos gallery for Women In Piracy photography by the Kingpins, Penelope Benton and Tina Fiveash - all excellent & we really enjoyed the short films by Vicki Papageorgopoulos & Elizabeth Reidy and the doco/performance of Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris is very funny indeed.
It's running until 10th April so drop by: Kudos Gallery 6 Napier St. Paddington 11am – 6pm Wed to Fri, 11am – 4pm Sat.
And, while in Paddington, it was a short walk to the Australian Centre for Photography to take in the excellent Amy Stein's latest works and the added surprise in the back gallery was Zed Nelson's Love Me - "a collection of images documenting how far people will go for the quest for physical perfection. Negotiating the boundaries of art and documentary photography, this series reflects a world we have created where enormous social, psychological and economic rewards and penalties are attached to the way we look..." Everything from a jar of the results of liposuction to a beauty contest amongst inmates at a Brazilian women's prison - along with some carefully chosen quotes, presents a careful and provocative show.
Sadly, we ran out of time (and the sky fell in) to get to Blender Gallery.

Then it was art for dinner - fresh asparagus cooked in olive oil with fresh chilli, garlic, zucchini & rocket over organic wholemeal pasta with grana padano - yumarama
Today a photo collective show down the road and tomorrow we will be taking in the MCA's latest - I'm looking forward to The Gift of Ann Lewis

Between all this, I am slowly working on 2 new collage images: A Spanish Interior & The Scottsmen - tells you nothing I know but I am enjoying seeing the images in my head, which will probably look nothing like the finished picture - stay tuned.
Oh, and I have also just updated my 2 other blogs (links just to the right of this page)

Rather than watch the midday movie...

2010-03-18T13:11:00.000+11:00

I thought I'd be better off posting an image I made yesterday morning:

It's not what I didn't do, it's what I did

2010-03-10T02:18:00.001+11:00

Today I made a picture.
It's called Set In Stone (or: Self Portrait, show us ya norks!)
you are allowed to laugh
image size about 44x32CM

Why not drop by... for a bite

2010-03-06T20:20:00.001+11:00

Location, location!
Erskineville - where anything can happen (image about 2004, negative scanned 2007)

Today has been a bit of a nothing day - we slept in longer than intended and then just did stuff. I have a number of mediocre tasks on my plate of which I've done ziltch/nil/nothin'

Most of the day I've been resisting opening up Patti Smith's new book, Just Kids - I am up to page 27 and know that if I pick it up in the middle of the day, I will read it through in 1 or 2 sittings, it's SO good but it is one to spend time with this book think about an mull over. She is such a good writer - a wonderful storyteller.
What I didn't expect to happen is the book provoking my own memories of wishes, anger & angst.

New works by Nicole Barakat

2010-03-05T16:11:00.002+11:00

Yesterday evening AH & I attended the opening of artist Nicole Barakat's new solo exhibition, Let the Beauty We Love Be What We Do.
Inspiring and thoughtful, this series has some familiarity with her earlier works but she now revels more of herself as an artist. Standing is the space she has created at the gallery, I could feel the quiet hours of work - using paper, fabric & thread.

At Nicole Barakat's exhibiton she also tells a story of Yolande, born in Beirut 1923, the mother of a friend who instead of always wearing mourning black of those around her, chose to dress for happiness by wearing bright colours and in WW2, to feel like a flower amongst the rubble...
Leading up to International Women's Day, I feel there is a lot pride and inspiration to be found at this show along with the open invitation to spend time with an artist's work stemming from another culture but of many cultures and it may well be your own.

The artist talk will be Sunday 14 March 2-3PM and the show runs from 4-14 March Wed-Sun 11am-4pm for examples of her current work go here better still, get to Camperdown and visit the Chrissie Cotter Gallery (at the end of) Pidcock Street - it's just off Mallet Street at Parramatta Road end.

Midnight posting - exhibition, a new blog, a new photo on an old blog

2010-03-04T02:21:00.002+11:00

My eyes are computer sore and it's one of those nights when I've been a long time in the chair with not a lot to show for it but I do have some news & updates.

Firstly, those on my newsletter list will know about the confirmation of my 5th solo exhibition, SANE opening on 25th June at the Albion Street Gallery. SANE is a collection of collages I have created over the last few months that have a splash of Dada, a smidge of Orwell, a bit of pop and some Americana. There is even a little tease under a few subconscious layers, of the Australian film & TV industry.

Secondly I began a new blog called Buildings & Things last month - check it out when you get a chance.

Thirdly, I have updated my 5 years as a rock moll blog with new photos like this one:

More excitedly, Vivid, Sydney's annual festival of music, light and ideas, which runs from May 27 to June 21, is being curated by Laurie Anderson & Lou Reed - fabbo!

I think that's it for this late hour

- AB

Behind the train station

2010-03-02T17:32:00.003+11:00

Eveleigh, behind the train lines - Saturday 27 February 2010

Meet Ted

2010-02-26T18:54:00.003+11:00

he lives with Ed...

A visit to the artist's house last October.
I took this photo to check the light in order to take a photo of Ted's human, the artist Edwina Wrobel as I am going to run a story about she and her work on this blog site.
The story will happen soon and definitely before Edwina's show TBA towards the end of this year. She was in a group show at the Balmain Watchhouse recently where she had one of the old cells filled with over a dozen paintings, which were sold out within 3 days. Stay tuned.

© Anne Bentley http://www.annebentley.com.au/

Boy's Own

2010-02-23T13:48:00.000+11:00

A real advert from 1922 - aimed at Mum or Dad? It looks like the boy is aiming his erector set piece at the little picture of the boy in the suit. Do you think he has another piece stashed in his pocket?

I want to know who the artist is - was he/she having a right laugh or were they totally oblivious?

( I found this while noodling about (read procrastinating) some internet sale pages - a guy is selling a heap of adverts he's taken from old magazines for about US$12 each - he is also selling old magazines that may or may not be complete... they may be a page missing so they are being sold 'as is' for about $12)

Victory Geese

2010-02-22T14:22:00.003+11:00

Victory Geese - Centennial Park, Sydney (image about 2002-03)

why geese? - just because and I like this shot - they could be a V for Victory or Peace.
I took this at a time in the morning I probably haven't seen since then - out with a friend near dawn. We had our manual cameras, tripods & lots of black and white film but after a bleary-eyed session drinking all the thermos tea, we mostly hovered near the kiosk until it opened for coffee and toast. Ended up with some very nice shots though.
And I'm also doing my best to procrastinate, as I do. It's stinking hot today, someone is using a drop saw outside (honestly, it feels like I'm living in the middle of a factory estate for the last year+) oh, and here comes my period (no horse riding for me today!). and the lovely chap who will be showing my next exhibition has asked for 'some words' - so of course I'm going through my archive that bears no relation to the show...

"The Director's Cut"

2010-02-13T14:37:00.007+11:00

when the director called, Action! chaos ensued

(click on it for a larger view.
from my coming exhibition in June called SANE)

from the studio floor

2010-02-08T15:55:00.002+11:00

Still Life - dried chilli on platter (about 2008) - the 'studio floor' being a bit of black foam on the kitchen floor..

Don't start singing Leonard Cohen songs

2010-02-07T01:41:00.002+11:00

even if it is a bird on the wire...
(Fig Bird with Lillypilly berry on the wire outside our front door Jan2009)

Grave Moments #2

2010-02-06T02:00:00.001+11:00

Camperdown cemetery Friday 13th March 2009 (cross-processed slide film)

The cats are still in the bag

2010-02-01T19:17:00.005+11:00

see:

ACP reading room Paddington Sydney

I've been wondering if I should have the cats in the bag made into a postcard... so many photos...so much fun.

And, letting the cat out of the bag - my other blog is no longer neglected - I've just uploaded a couple of previously-unpublished-on-the-blog rock shots.

check them out & get on down & then get back up again

Fleeting moments - painted walls 10 years ago (Postcards of my photos)

2010-02-01T18:49:00.003+11:00

From 10 years ago (gosh time goes by and all that):

Wilson Lane (near Redfern) 1999

This laneway runs between Abercrombie Street (sometimes called Applecrumble Street coined in the late 1980s-early 1990s because of all the earthy lesbians renting cheaply there, just around the corner from "the block" Redfern) & Wilson Street. This piece of communal work (meaning someone painting over someone's tag over someone's comments...) was like this for less than a month so I am glad I had a camera in my pocket that day.

I had Wilson Lane 1999 made into a postcard in 2008 along with:

"Doorbell" Australia Street Newtown

I took this at the end of 2000, to finish off a roll of film a week after arriving back from Ireland & Germany and the day before I broke my ankle. "Doorbell" is of course gone - the house sold long ago. A band lived here when this was taken - they would often spray paint their next gig a little further up on the white wall. This is an image I really like - it is a good statement about living in Newtown 10 years ago. Makes a good postcard too.

Sunday afternoon playing records

2010-01-31T16:13:00.008+11:00

I was going to blog yesterday about little Saturday thoughts like getting dippy in the head (oh, ok, neurotic then) over the women's tennis final - really, really wanting to watch it but oh, it was just too exciting. Instead I made us a late dinner and popped my head in the room with the telly to catch glimpses of Justin Henin's clever playing against Serena Williams but I really can't put up with either of the Williams sisters, especially Venus's ego carry on and porn film outfits designed, I'm sure, partially to put off their opponents but it's mostly it's ego. As if we can't see her?? As SW won, I'm glad I missed the last set.

One of the best games I've ever seen was a semi-final in New York between Martina & Chrissie - one time when the tennis was rained out, they repeated it (even though it was already a couple of years old) and it was still gripping second time around even knowing who won. Guess I blathered Saturday today...

---------------

Sunday afternoon - it's a bit yuuky-muggy & the fellow next door is drilling next to the wall of the room I am in - he is trying to get his house finished as its completion is now 7wks overdue - makes it a bit iffy to really focus & do good productive work so...
why not play some records!

Loud
yaye

On top is this favourite - crisp & clear like it was made this week rather than over 30 years ago.

Patti Smith has just released a memoir of her early years with Robert Mapplethorpe & I've just put it on the shopping list. Just Kids

Now, what's next... a little Nina Hagen me thinks...
But first - hooray for Laurie Anderson, hooray!:

1986 Home of the Brave (check out the 80s hair dos - not Laurie, she is always cool)

I've been having an enjoyable Laurie Anderson fest these last weeks - listening to all the music of her I have, (and that's a lot if not all...) along with reading her Stories from the Nerve Bible. Very cool, clever and funny - laugh aloud funny at that..

Holy stairs

2010-01-28T20:12:00.000+11:00

Now I'm absolved (1 Jan 2010 -St Johns, Newtown NSW Australia)

Is John Howard still in power? What? No? THEN GET THE F*&K OUT OF MY COMPUTER!!

2010-01-27T02:30:00.000+11:00

Stop Internet Censorship in Australia

The Australian Federal Government has a plan to force Internet Service Providers [ISPs] to censor the Internet.
The reason given is to stop child abuse (it may make it harder for say, the amature but hard core nasty toxic abusers will always find a way, they always have - it's up to the police to catch them, not ISPs) The banned list includes material that has been 'refused classification' includes websites about euthanasia, controversial movies such as 'Ken Park' and 'Baise-moi', and many games that are designed for people over 16 years of age.

Just when we thought we were a civilised free country, we are thrown back into a John Howard 1950s mentality.
http://www.internetblackout.com.au/profiles/

where does it stop? what else will the government filter? who decides what gets banned and for who's benefit?

Open the Totalitarianism box and you can never close it.

shells of their former selves

2010-01-27T01:55:00.001+11:00

They all once housed living creatures... (Sunday walk 24 Jan 2010 Camperdown Cicada shell & Sydney University Darlington Campus)

It doesn't matter how long you've lived with someone, if it's working there is always something new to find out about 'the other'. I showed AH the cicada shell photos who replied with an eeuww & when I asked, don't you like cicadas? she replied that she doesn't particularly like them!

Gosh, said I. Really?

ah huh.

But they are so ancient and gentle and have little sticky legs that tickle & hook onto your finger... (- her face told me that I'm not winning the cicada cause)

It does explain why I'm the one who has to rescue them out of the house.

She admitted they are "quite fascinating"

Go all the way, I dare you

2010-01-19T18:20:00.003+11:00

Your challenge - watch AND LISTEN to this clip in its entirety - isn't that use of synth catchy! This is exciting - who is the choreographer? (and why weren't they shot)
That's Tommy Seebach on keyboard - A Pop Legend in Denmark it has been said (but noone is owning up to who said it)

Check you later Rowland S Howard - thanks for "Shivers"

2010-01-18T19:32:00.008+11:00

When I read about people who die of cancer or other drawn out terminal diseases others say, he/she was serene, s/he accepted their fate are philosophical even... but Rowland Howard who wrote one of my all time favourite songs (Shivers) wasn't ready yet according to Mick Harvey (fellow Birthday Party member) - Rowland S Howard wanted to live. but his liver didn't let him. Bugger that, hey.

A rather harsh sounding version was the original 1978 version by his first well known band, The Young Charlatans and then there's the very smooth Nick with The Boys Next Door in '79 with some lovely guitar work from Roland but the best version of the song for me is Marie Hoy (and friends) performing it on the Dogs in Space soundtrack 1986:

(This was so utterly cool, I bought the record just for this one track (sadly the "White" cover LP - with the band Marie Hoy was a part of - Thrush & the Cunts censored - I wonder how much the "Black" cover LP is worth! I'm yet to see one) but Iggy doing Endless Sea is pretty neat too)

Of course there's 30 years of guitar playing, song writing & performing - lots of excellent songs and he made a difference and by writing that one song that enriched my life - cheers Rowland S Howard, check you later.

Shivers - the smooth blokes version:

Rowland S Howard 24 October 1959 – 30 December 2009

Day trip to Manly - photo mag moment

2010-01-16T01:24:00.001+11:00

Yesterday AH & I went for the best ferry ride to be found in Sydney: Circular Quay to Manly.

Manly - from one of the docks.

From the ferry on the way back to Circular Quay - if you keep sailing toward the horizon you will eventually hit New Zealand
The sailboat on the left had a bit of strife & blocked the path of the ferry we were on. Ferry staff had to stop & sound the horn.

seagulls worked hard to keep up with the ferrry so they could snatch food from these young men's hands. The gulls also caught thrown grapes in their beak against a strong breeze - we were impressed.

Revisiting for fun

2010-01-08T01:45:00.003+11:00

The first time I saw this reworked literal version of the 1983 video & song I laughed so much I was close to hysterical. This is so good, it's worth revisiting - not to be confused with revisiting the actual 1980s that's punishable by holding you down and styling your hair into a mullet or perm... or both!

Sony sucks by being lame copyright corporates - forgetting that the people who did this and people watching it & enjoying it were major contributors to the wealth this one release made (except me I guess... hmmm, maybe those that enjoy this most couldnt't stand the effing thing!)

hopefully you can get the gist of how much fun this is until the greed monsters jump on it again

Just now

2010-01-06T18:28:00.002+11:00

on a short round trip walk to pick up the mail & some bananas (along with a loaf of that scrumptious apricot bread for toast)
as follows:

1. Waiting to cross at the traffic lights

2. Texting in front of The Hub (out of shot is 1/2 doz youngers with their clipboards taking a break from hassling people for charity & over a bit further out of shot some folks that looked as though they were waiting for their AA or NA meeting at the Newtown Community Centre)

3. Home again - looking out the side door to see if the stray who came to stay is here yet - snuck this shot through the grotty mesh of the door - the bright bit is part of the little verandah - it's very sunny out there
He's called Boyfriend because he loved our now deceased elderly cat & would call to her through the window. Being wild, he learnt to eat what he could when he can but now he has a yard to live in and daily food he still continues to do so around the neighbourhood & is a right fatty and a very nice natured animal.

notice

2010-01-05T02:17:00.000+11:00

Ready for the new year - Notice board, Sydney University Grounds 3 January 2010

free to a good home - well, free to any home -

2010-01-02T20:00:00.000+11:00

Free stuff put out in the back lane, (Newtown 28 Dec 2009.)
The owners couldn't quite bring themselves to putting it in the bin to rot, so they put it in the laneway where it will rot.

happy new year

Love at the laundromat

2009-12-30T13:22:00.000+11:00

it's magic

(out for a walk the other day - King St Newtown -Sydney)

Let them know it's *&^%$#@() time - 25 year anniversary - old favourites - some lovely music to listen to - scroll down first, hit play... any play, pop on your old Koala suit and have a read

2009-12-24T01:58:00.019+11:00

"I heard the news today oh boy" It's 25 years since a who’s who of should-never-have-been (soon to be has-beens) utterly boring popsters sang that annoying song about all the starving people - Look at us boring rich popsters making you feel guilty about gorging yourself at Christmas time - let them know it's Christmas by donating all your money to their despot governments and corrupt officials... Oh, go get Knighted will you! (song - Let Them Know It's Christmas time by Band Aid - in case you want reminding!)

I think it was with that song and all that yelling at crowds when the clever guilt-trip scripting began. Psychologically refined, it is now employed by backpackers on holiday working as charity collectors....
Smiley healthy young things that call to you as you walk toward them, next to them and away from them saying, "Do you care about the environment / refugees / eyesight ...?"

Unlike the coin collecting Koalas, it's hard to ridicule these nice acting English / Irish / American folks - likely part of a guilt-trip brainwashing conspiracy because suddenly we all have to be nice, don't we - maybe it's the folate they add to flour...

I measured my not having owned a car or motorbike for 15years, turning off all appliances at the power-point, been using those bloody light saver globes for years (- they save money but they're a bit dim and if you don't see the booger on your face, you walk out of your house with that booger on your face
in public -)
...footprint and said "Fuck off" to someone.
I didn't want to say fuck off... Now that I think about it you know I didn't actually say fuck off, I really said "Oh, get fucked".
I said it as I walked past a visiting clipboard carrying man who spoke to me even though I didn't make eye contact but he didn't ask if I cared, he said, "DON'T you care?" **

But what should a person really do when faced with feeling helpless (refer**)??
SING.
Yes, that's right, get out a cake tin, give it a tap and have yourself a singalong.
You can simply clap your hands... or not.

It's been a long time since I took some leisure time at RatherGoodDOTcom - close to 5 years - gosh.
An old favourtie AH and I often sing around the house is La la la la Football - we mess up the words and only sing the easy bits but it's a jolly song (oh except we didn't barrack -am I supposed to spell that Barak from now on lest the lightening comes for me - for England - we cheered on all the underdogs and then the Germans and mostly the women's finals anyway...):

I really like the totally unsound one by those naughty hedgehogs... but I've chosen one of AH's favourites to show here - it really tickles her and for me, well it's another jolly and catchy singalong (and maybe a little nudge about GM and adding things to food and water for the good of the public):

**I'd just heard a report that some scientists have suggested that due to global warming, the carbon monoxide in Eucalyptus trees may become so high that nutritional levels in leaves will drop drastically and Koalas will die out. There really will be drop-bears - dropping out of trees, dead (insert unhappy face made of semi colons and brackets). The report really shook me up and I figured I would continue to donate independently and when I can to the Australian Koala Foundation rather than give my personal banking details or credit card number to a foreigner standing on a street corner with a carefully scripted set of words.
- "when I can" meaning, oi! EVERYONE, stop being so Nihilist and buy art.
buy my art! then you see, I can donate to worthy causes... wow, that's a trip!

A classic sing-a-long:

I’m the Zoology Dragon,
I drive around in my Dragon Wagon,
I invent animals,
(that are) MADE OF CUBES

I’m the Zoology Dragon,
I’m always buzzing and I’m never flagging,
I’ve made more animals than you can imagine,
SO PAY ATTENTION TO THEIR SURFACE TENSION

COW! CUBE!
COWUUUUUBE!
COW! CUBE!
COWUUUUUBE!
I’m the Zoology Dragon,
Making animals is my passion,
I made the elephant and the donkey,

BUT BE CAREFUL BECAUSE THEY HAVE GOT INFINITE DENSITY
COW! CUBE!
COWUUUUUBE!
COW! CUBE!
COWUUUUUBE!

The Queen Comes to Katoomba NSW Australia 12 February 1954

2009-12-16T19:21:00.008+11:00

(watching the parade - photographer unknown)

In 1954, the year after her coronation, Queen Elizabeth II became the first reigning monarch to tour Australia. The tour included 70 country towns and in Katoomba, an unknown person took photos of the event from the crowd. These snaps are now a part of my small photography collection.

My Mother was 22 years old and working in a photo development shop in the Blue Mountains with her best friend. One of the other girls working there, after processing & printing 18 Brownie shots of someone's day during the Royal Visit, printed a set each for her co-workers.
Mum is good fun when she tells me of slightly naughty things in her younger, pre-marriage years (this week is her 55th wedding anniversary) - normally well spoken, she gets a twinkle in her eyes and with not quite a full giggle tells me stories with the punch line or main anecdote spoken through one side of her mouth, putting on an earlier Australian accent.

The Queen's visit was a huge event for many Australians and remains the most popular Royal Visit to Australia of them all.

A few years ago when visiting my Mother, she showed me the photos and told me about the fun they had at the shop - sometimes there wouldn't be any work* so they'd take corny posed shots of each other, hand to forehead - glamour puss at lunchtime.
Wondering why I'd want those old things that weren't very good anyway, she gave me the unknown photographer's snaps.

One of my activities is restoring old photographs & here is the original scan of the above scene:

It's hard to see all the splotches & scratches here but you get the idea about the exposure & straight-forward development (no dodging, these are direct contact prints from the negatives). Taking photographs during a bright day in February would always be tricky.

- especially if the photographer appears to be short:

can they see anything?

* in another shop where my Mother worked in main street of Leura (- she lived midway between Katoomba & Leura -) her kind boss kept her and her friend on the payroll during Winter even though there was hardly any work. "You could let off a gun in the middle of the main street and you wouldn't even hit a dog" - on ya Mum

Australia is not a Repulic yet but it may get its independence one day - I do hope my Mother gets to see it happen.

Oh, by the way, none of the photos shows even a tiny glimpse of QEII or even her car!

Monday - quiet & cloudy

2009-12-14T15:29:00.000+11:00

Cloudy yes but quiet, no. Today it's surround-sound power tools - a drop saw just down the way, somewhere else likely an angle grinder & next door a bit of everything that vibrates the wall...

Meanwhile it's a lovely gentle day - low temp, clouds hiding the often too bright sun and a hint of breeze.

looks a bit like this:

modern art

2009-12-07T10:20:00.000+11:00

can't remember where I nicked this - somwhere sometime online

Location Location Location

2009-12-01T14:34:00.007+11:00

AH and I are vaguely looking at places for rent and I noticed that a Mary Street Newtown house is once again up for rent 6 months after the last time again for $400 a week.
Real Estate agents describe it as:
"We love
The abundance of natural light and air
The short walk to the heart of Newtown
The open plan loft style second bedroom
The leafy rear courtyard, timber benches
The large neat and tidy eat in kitchen "

complete with pretty pic:

doesnt that look nice...

I walk past this house often on my way to our post office box and I can tell you now that the above photo is from over 6 months ago and of course they try for the most flattering looks. (I suppose only 6 months old is better than the photos of houses for rent that stupidly have digital date stamps on them from 2005 that I've seen recently.)

If you walk just past number 3, well, right next to it you will see an electricity substation. That's right, a big load of lectrickery is your next door neighbour. Opposite the 1/2 house is a drop in place, a phone company depot (read vans driving in and out with big roller door) and a pub with an exit on King Street and Mary Street (read men urinating on their way home). It really is only 3 doors away from King Street - the park is at the other end of the street but the transport, lots and lots of it - trucks, buses, cars, really is at your doorstep.

Not long ago I was walking down Mary Street, early evening but still daylight & watched as 2 meth boys smashed a car window and stole what looked like a laptop bag right in front of me. Now, I do realise that once a gel is over 40 and not of a breeding age, she often becomes the invisible woman but that was ridiculous and just a tiny bit scary.

Does this house come with off-street parking? No, don't be silly, that would mean lots more rent.

This is what it REALLY looks like:

I took this at the end of last week.
Notice all the bakery trays - they are there most of the time. Notice the open and over-full wheelie rubbish bins? same. Check out the (lack of) gutter above the verandah - one could think of that as a statement as to the condition of the rest of the house. In the background I see a palm tree - that must be the "leafy" bit - they drop their dirty great branches with big spikes, heavy enough to kill your cat (they allow pets) but that doesn't matter because if the animal gets past the barbed wire, it will be electrocuted anyway.
Security? I am not going there but I reckon the contents insurance premium will be plus a few hundred and if you have a car... But remember: location location location!
That's not location that's being certifiable.
By the way, it's better revenue for real estate agents to lease every 6 months then to have long-term tenants.

I just read that it's been rented.

More from my eclectic collection - Lovely, lovely women

2009-11-27T20:51:00.015+11:00

Another from my collection- a real 8x10 photo of Julie Christie Sept 1968 - photographer likely Ron Galella* / during the making of the film, In Search of Gregory - 1969 (do you suppose that's a real cross-your-heart-bra?)

Lovely Julie Christie... Memorable films with Julie Christie playing excellent roles in that I will always watch again: Farenheit 451, Far from the Madding Crowd, The Go-Between & The Return of the Soldier. I am not discounting other performances but these are the ones I will always see again.

And while I researched the origins of my real (phowr) photo, I was playing some of my small collection of Francoise Hardy 1960s picture cover EPs & 45s like this gem from the same year as the the JC film, 1969:

To my delight, she does a French version of Leonard Cohen's Suzanne on this record and this is what I'm listening to at the moment:

Comment Te Dire Adieu (love those 3 dancers at the end)

*yes it's that Ron Galella the pioneer of paparazzo, famous for losing his teeth to Marlon Brando's knuckles & having his car tyres slashed by Elvis Presley's bodyguards. I did not know anything about the Julie Christie photo when I originally bought it - it had no information with it. (I can only assume Galella was allowed on film sets at one time before he began following people (my pic is from 1968 & he bothered Brando in 1973)

Grimm Days

2009-11-25T14:22:00.005+11:00

acrylic paint (except for nun shot - digital eraser) cut & paste - once was a little Grimms Fairy Tales Book. bits from: National Geographic 1953 (boy & guard & dentures), women's weekly 1950s (hungry bird), internet (dildo), unknown (bubbleman), holy card (nun), Grimm's Fairy Tales (script)
(beavis and butt-head sentiments disguised as art - I may need advice from Daria)

I'm not even an Austin fan but I found this fun just the same - now you have to do the quiz

2009-11-23T15:21:00.006+11:00

I got sucked in and did one of the quiz thingies but this one flows on with the book theme below - minus the distended belly commentary - and naturally I would not have put this link here unless I scored Elizabeth Bennet. I suspect a lot of people end up with her as she's the most modern of Jane Austins gels... But still, hah hah, I scored Elizabeth

here's where you go to play the quiz

revisited and in another mood Feb 2011 and I end up being:

Take the Quiz here!